Help! Help! I'm being ignored! I just found out that this problem (the driver no longer reading the user's adjustments from the SCSI BIOS EEPROM configuration data) not only removes the possibility to limit transfer speed and width for single devices or entire channels. It also makes the driver ignore the adapter ordering in multiple-channel setups. This machine here has an LSI 21002, where the LVD channel is on device function 1 and the UW channel is on 0. Naturally the user will set the adapter order in BIOS such that the system HDD (on the LVD channel) becomes /dev/sda regardless of other drives on the UW channel. Now, with the latest driver releases ignoring this BIOS adjustment, the channels are scanned in order of appearance on the PCI bus rather than in the order the user wants ... in this case, the LVD channel ends up becoming sym1, which means that whenever I connect my external MO drive to the U/UW channel, I get a kernel panic because Linux can't find its system volume. Not good. Please talk to me ... thanks! regards, Peter On Saturday 26 February 2005 20:34, Peter Missel wrote: > Greetings! > > Now that producing another pair of coasters reminded me that this here > system has a problem on SCSI branch 1, I'd like to inquire about the > current state of affairs regarding this topic. (Also, I've encountered > another machine I'd like to upgrade to a newer Linux kernel but can't since > it's using this very feature-that-went-missing.) > > Is there a patch I can install and try out, or anything else I can do? > > best regards, > Peter Missel > > On Friday 31 December 2004 15:53, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > > On Fri, Dec 31, 2004 at 01:43:42PM +0100, Peter Missel wrote: > > > Hello Matthew! > > > > > > I hope I'm turning to the right person with my report. > > > > Yep, that's me. Best to keep linux-scsi in the loop too. That way > > other people prod me when I've been inattentive ;-) > > > > > After updating to SuSE > > > Linux 9.2, kernel 2.6.8, which brought rev. 2.1.18j of the LSI SCSI > > > driver, I see that the driver's speed/width negotiation no longer > > > considers any limitations configured in the adapter's BIOS. My previous > > > installation, using kernel 2.4.20 and its included LSI SCSI driver, did > > > that perfectly fine. > > > > Yes, that's right. I'm not a big fan of dealing with distro kernels > > because they make changes without informing me. An earlier SuSE kernel > > commented out the domain validation calls from the sym2 driver -- without > > putting the previous code back in. However, that problem doesn't seem to > > be present in this kernel. > > > > > For example (and that's why I noticed), if in SCSI BIOS a certain SCSI > > > channel (or a single device) has been limited by the user to 10 MT/s, > > > the Linux SCSI driver nonetheless negotiates to 20 MT/s. > > > > > > It is necessary to stick to the settings from BIOS (as read from > > > EEPROM), simply because there might be a good reason why the user did > > > that. In my particular case, I need to restrict the sym0 channel from > > > doing Ultra (20 MT/s) altogether because the total cable length doesn't > > > allow me to, > > > > The Domain Validation code is supposed to catch problems like this, and > > automatically fall back to a setting that works without requiring the > > user to set magic bits in their NVRAM. Are you actually experiencing > > problems due to the faster speed, or is it just that you know the cable > > is out of spec? > > > > Hm, I see we skip the write tests, presumably because the drive doesn't > > support a write buffer. Drat. > > > > > and I > > > have one device restricted further to 5 MT/s because I own a buggy > > > Fujitsu MO that claims 10 MT/s capability but (according to Fujitsu's > > > support answer back when I bought it) has a SCSI interface chip on that > > > can't actually do that. > > > > Buggy drive firmware keeps on biting us ;-( It does seem worth honouring > > the NVRAM settings, but the thing is that we then have to support such > > fixes in each driver. > > > > > Below please see a snippet from /var/log/boot.msg; the external branch > > > (including the MO) is disconnected so I can use the system at all. You > > > can still see from dev 0.0.1.0 that 20 MT/s are being set up although > > > the adapter's EEPROM settings mandate a maximum of 10 MT/s for the > > > entire sym0 channel. Also, in line 5 of the snippet, you see the sym0 > > > host is being logged as "Fast-40 SE" which should read lower. The "SCAN > > > AT BOOT" parameter from the same EEPROM is read correctly. > > > > > > Being a system BIOS developper, I have the means to do an EEPROM dump > > > of my SCSI adapter. So in case this is helpful to you, I'll do that as > > > soon as I'm back to work on Jan 10. > > > > I don't need you to do that -- I know the ability has been removed from > > the driver. I bet I can put it back without disturbing things too much. > > > > > <5>SCSI subsystem initialized > > > <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:0a.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ > > > 169 <6>sym0: <896> rev 0x5 at pci 0000:00:0a.0 irq 169 > > > <6>sym0: using 64 bit DMA addressing > > > <4>sym0: Symbios NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-40, SE, parity checking > > > <4>sym0: SCAN AT BOOT disabled for targets 2 3 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15. > > > <5>sym0: SCSI BUS has been reset. > > > <6>scsi0 : sym-2.1.18j > > > <5> Vendor: NAKAMICH Model: MJ-5.16S Rev: 1.02 > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:0): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:0: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 15) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:0): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:0): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: NAKAMICH Model: MJ-5.16S Rev: 1.02 > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:1): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:0: asynchronous. > > > <6>sym0:0: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 15) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:1): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:1): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: NAKAMICH Model: MJ-5.16S Rev: 1.02 > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:2): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:0: asynchronous. > > > <6>sym0:0: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 15) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:2): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:2): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: NAKAMICH Model: MJ-5.16S Rev: 1.02 > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:3): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:0: asynchronous. > > > <6>sym0:0: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 15) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:3): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:3): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: NAKAMICH Model: MJ-5.16S Rev: 1.02 > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:4): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:0: asynchronous. > > > <6>sym0:0: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 15) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:4): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:0:4): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: YAMAHA Model: CRW2100S Rev: 1.0N > > > <5> Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:1:0): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:1: FAST-20 SCSI 20.0 MB/s ST (50.0 ns, offset 7) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:1:0): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:1:0): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5> Vendor: OnStream Model: SC-30 Rev: 1.09 > > > <5> Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 > > > <6>scsi(0:0:4:0): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym0:4: FAST-10 SCSI 10.0 MB/s ST (100.0 ns, offset 7) > > > <6>scsi(0:0:4:0): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(0:0:4:0): Ending Domain Validation > > > <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:0a.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ > > > 209 <6>sym1: <896> rev 0x5 at pci 0000:00:0a.1 irq 209 > > > <6>sym1: using 64 bit DMA addressing > > > <4>sym1: Symbios NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-40, LVD, parity checking > > > <4>sym1: SCAN AT BOOT disabled for targets 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11 12 13 > > > 14 15. <5>sym1: SCSI BUS has been reset. > > > <6>scsi1 : sym-2.1.18j > > > <5> Vendor: QUANTUM Model: ATLAS IV 9 WLS Rev: 0909 > > > <5> Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 03 > > > <6>sym1:0:0: tagged command queuing enabled, command queue depth 16. > > > <6>scsi(1:0:0:0): Beginning Domain Validation > > > <6>sym1:0: wide asynchronous. > > > <6>sym1:0: FAST-40 WIDE SCSI 80.0 MB/s ST (25.0 ns, offset 31) > > > <6>scsi(1:0:0:0): Domain Validation skipping write tests > > > <6>scsi(1:0:0:0): Ending Domain Validation > > > <5>SCSI device sda: 17942584 512-byte hdwr sectors (9187 MB) > > > <5>SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back > > > <6> sda: sda1 sda2 > > > <5>Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 - : send the line "unsubscribe linux-scsi" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
